# The Great Meer Detective



## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Upon request I am politely obliging to a idea from Robert to follow my meers on their journey to colored ville I am going to be posting pics of each meer every five to ten smokes to take note of the process. In addition I am going to try and smoke the same few blends out of them in a similar frequency so we can truly see the difference. One is lattice and one is smooth both have very slight color do to a few smokes but slight enough to begin from there as a starting point. Comments and suggestions welcome. Second meer will arrive in a couple weeks but first meers pics will start when my new lens comes in.
cheers 
dave


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## lostdog13 (Jan 16, 2012)

ugh! posted in the wrong thread...stupid "open in new tab". I can't wait to see the progress Dave.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Great idea! Experiencing PAD vicariously...


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2012)

What a neat idea, I can't wait to see this progress! RG to you Dave


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Thanks thanks actually just gives me more of an excuse to smoke a pipe as if I needed one.


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## Guest (Dec 17, 2012)

Dang you, now you've got me looking at IMPs... :lol:


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Camera lens arrived today. First meer pics up tomorrow. New to meer shipped today probably be here just after Christmas. Locked and loaded and ready to smoke still deciding the main blends to use only keeping track of the blends because the kind of tobacco you smoke does effect the coloring.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Ok all so here is the first of hopefully many photos and updates of the meers journey to coloring. Now a couple of things first off. The lighting in my apartment is pretty terrible especially since just about every single day now is raining. Second lens sensor had a hard time focusing on the white of the pipe because digital cameras have a hard time with white and I did not bring my film camera to france. Next colors on photos were edited a tench to help see what I am seeing with my eyes. Basically hopefully we will have a better more permanent light situation soon. 
SO here is the first meer with the second due to arrive I believe just before Christmas.


































As you can hopefully see in the images that even though this meer has only 8 or so smokes on it, it has developed a beautiful cream color all the way around the the base and the front lip of the topmost which might not have made it into the pictures. The blends that have been smoked out of this meer so far have been fm 1 bowl, anni make 3 bowls, fmotb 1 bowl, sherlock holmes 2 bowls, and grey havens 1 bowl. Stay tuned for furture updates. As soon as the new meer comes in I will have a photo shoot and now that these are up its time to smoke out!
Dave


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## steinr1 (Oct 22, 2010)

Thanks for doing this for us all, Dave. I liked the idea but knew that I wouldn't have the strength of will to carry it through. Good luck!


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

steinr1 said:


> Thanks for doing this for us all, Dave. I liked the idea but knew that I wouldn't have the strength of will to carry it through. Good luck!


Thanks, and its really not much trouble smoke smoke smoke and a few pics. Honestly it would be harder if I wanted to smoke any other pipe but I don't. Ill try and get some better pics up tomorrow. Going to smoke in the garden behind Norte dame! :banana:


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## steinr1 (Oct 22, 2010)

Dr. Plume said:


> Thanks, and its really not much trouble smoke smoke smoke and a few pics. Honestly it would be harder if I wanted to smoke any other pipe but I don't. Ill try and get some better pics up tomorrow. *Going to smoke in the garden behind Norte dame! *:banana:


Lucky bugger! I love Paris - it really is a beautiful city. Hate Parisians - the rudest, most arrogant and unfriendly Frenchmen you will ever meet in that otherwise friendly country. But love Paris.

I worked in Bordeaux for about a year and I couldn't figure out why everyone was trying to run me off the road. Then a colleague told me it was probably because the loaner I used had Parisian plates. Other Frenchmen hate them too. Can't remember how the system worked regarding plates. I love the French attitude to driving - ever noticed how those "carrosserie" shops always have lots of cars that are destroyed front-end in them? A Frenchman would rather die than not overtake you. And often, they do.


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## MontyTheMooch (May 27, 2012)

That's not bad coloring for only 8-10 smokes.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Dr. Plume said:


> Thanks, and its really not much trouble smoke smoke smoke and a few pics. Honestly it would be harder if I wanted to smoke any other pipe but I don't. Ill try and get some better pics up tomorrow. Going to smoke in the garden behind Norte dame! :banana:


Great thread, great pics, great living vicariously through your piping!

Now as to that garden smoke.....PICS OF THE GARDEN!!!!!!!


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Desertlifter said:


> Great thread, great pics, great living vicariously through your piping!
> 
> Now as to that garden smoke.....PICS OF THE GARDEN!!!!!!!


Sure thing just for you. As to Parisians I don't drive and I know they are the worst. Only people that rival the French and their driving is the Italians. However I find that the Parisians are lovely people other than that. Perhaps this is because of too things one o feel I am well on my way to codgerdom and two I speak French so they most marvel at the weird American that does not conform to their stereotypes. It also helps that I have the cutest infant daughter and nothing melts the French like a baby.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

I hate everyone. Why does everyone's meer color faster than mine? Grrrr.....


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

I honestly think the only reason this one is coloring so fast is because each smoke out of it is 90 min or more. The she amount of tobacco being consumed is incredible. It hold I believe at least a 1/3 more than my mm general. It is both deeper and wider. Smokes nine and ten are on it Christmas cheer and the last of some grey havens mixed with som fmott. Thanks to Greg for the grey haven! Here is a couple pics of my smoke in front of Notre Dame.
















I have better pics of Notre Dame ill upload later! Mark the meer is also possible not that dark the lighting was bad and I had to saturate the pic some so that you could see the change in the light. I'll have a better pic of what it is actually looking like in a bit.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Had to saturate the photo again to bring it to the level I am seeing damn you white balance! Here's a pic from earlier.








Ill try a different lens tomorrow to try and get it.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Dr. Plume said:


> Had to saturate the photo again to bring it to the level I am seeing damn you white balance!


Ah, so the problem isn't my pipe, it's that I don't know how to use the friggin' camera! Time for some research...


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Because digital cameras use a sensor and not an actual medium aka film. They have difficult with one little color and seeing it and its called white. Makes taking meer pics a pain in the a$$. So one of the battles pis getting it to look normal in digital photography.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Smoke 11 was anni kake. Smoke 12 will be frog Morton. When we get to 15 expect another photo shoot. Hopefully new meer will be here tomorrow.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Smoke 12 was fmott and 13 is escudo.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

14 was fm and one more to photo shoot.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Ok all thanks for the patients here is another meer update. This update includes the pics of the new meer which I am estimating at about 10 smokes that it has in it. I cleaned it out this morning good with some vodka and ready to go. Finally solved white balance problem with camera and so I present the unaltered photos as is so you can see the true color for yourselves. The key is that the digital sensor in the camera does not know what white is. So the meets kept looking absolutely white and I would have to seriously edit them to make them look true to the image that I was seeing. So the solution was to put the objects on a pure white piece of computer paper so that the camera could use the paper for a base to kind of learn white if you will and I cannot believe that I didnt think of this before. Again these are unedited and I will try and make the enviroment better for the next shoot. So Here is the Smooth horn meer after 15 smokes you will see that the color at the bottom (or maybe you wont because the first pics were crap) is darker by a shade or two. One thing that may not be visable is that the front most panel is lightly colored all the way up to the rim now.
















manual Focusing is still a challenge on the white as my sensor cant tell how close or far it is away. 
Next is the lattice meer and I must say that this meer is very pretty in person. While I am in the UK for the next two weeks I will probably only smoke the lattice to give my other a break and to (not that it needs it) and so nothing happens to my prized horn meer. WHat you cannot see in these photos is that the coloring on it is maybe not as dark as the picture captured because of lighting and its almost pinkish in color not brown..... very pretty imo.
























There it is folks. I am going to try in give you another update on the lattice after 5 more so they both have a 15 smoke update and then it will be every 10 smokes from then on. With special shoots at 50 and 100 smokes and we will see from there how things are progressing. Definitely a learning process for me.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Nice - and thanks for sharing! What do you think the source of the horizontal line in the bowl is? Odd that it is so straight. Bottom of the bowl?


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Yep bottom is completely covered. It's not quite straight but close and I have no clue why.


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## steinr1 (Oct 22, 2010)

Looking good... These pipes do colour in odd ways. I've given up trying to figure out why. Let's just enjoy it.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Indeed lattice meer is getting a maden voyage treat tonight Virginia woods 2006 thanks to mark c


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Smoke 11 for lattice meer was Virginia woods, 12 was Hotw, and 13 was frog Morton 2 more for a lattice meer update photo shoot. Haven't had as much time to smoke here abroad as I would like but I think a back to back bowl Is in order tomorrow. After this update will be updates every ten smokes.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

14 fmott


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

15 for lattice meer is fmott photo shoot when I get back to Paris.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Hey all alright so I got back from my trip and here are the updates both pipes are sitting at 15 smokes and so today I thought that I would do a photoshoot for both pipes to give you all a baseline of where they are at. They are both coloring very interestingly and hopfully these unedited photos will show you in detail how. 
So here is the first and my favorite the paneled horn sitter (both pipes are imp for those who dont know)








Here is a pic of it from the front panel before I left for my vacation it seems that this was in a straight line all the way around but this next pic shows that during its rest is seems to have defined more clearly where it is.








Here is a pic from the other side you can see the top front panel is getting some color and in person you can lightly see that the color actually runs up albeit lightly runs up the complete front panel








which you can more readily see in this pic








While this one is primarily coloring at the bottom of the pipe first which tends to be how people say most pipes color first this next pipe kinda disproves that because it is coloring all over and more so at the top then the bottom. Like I said in several of my other posts most things in the meer world are highly debated.








here is a pic with a little more natural lighting thanks to a cloudy snow covered day. This pic show more the actual color of the pipe but if only you all could see it up close in person you would see that the coloration is not brown or yellow at all but pink. Amazing








This pipe is certainly more lightly colored than the other pipe as maybe you have noticed. Though I am running pretty much the same tobaccos through them and giving them cleanings at the same interval perhaps she will catch up yet.








The difficult thing with meers is that it is bloody hard to take good photos of them and so much depends on good lighting. So here is another pic of the first one with a bit more natural light in which the tone appears lighter again these photos are unedited uploaded straight from the camera. The color that I see is about in between this and the other but again its all about the light that you catch the picture in. 








Any again this is the fifteen smoke update and there will be many more to come. I am going to go ahead and give a brief update at 20 smokes a piece which covers the beginning pretty nicely and then go to updates every ten or so smokes. with big shoots at big milestones aka 50 and 100 smokes. Look forward to sharing more of this stuff. If you have any question comments criticisms or witticisms let me know.
thanks
dave


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

I don't have too much time to post in two places anymore with a move coming up so all future updates to this thread will be located here. meer detective
thanks.
dave


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Sorry last link didn't work hopefully this one will.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

Hey guys puff admin says I can't post link here because they consider it spam. If you would like to continue to follow the thread you can email me and I shall send you the link.
Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.


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## Scott W. (Jul 10, 2008)

Is it because you are redirecting this thread to another board?


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

scottw said:


> Is it because you are redirecting this thread to another board?


Yes but it's one they don't like for reasons I will not go into.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can link to ANY other cigar forum.


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## Scott W. (Jul 10, 2008)

Dr. Plume said:


> Yes but it's one they don't like for reasons I will not go into.


You don't have to go into it....plain and simple, if a website is another forum(and it is), you can't redirect it.


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## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

I guess I never knew that rule. I'm not trying to stir drama, and I do understand why the admin made this decision in this case. But I've posted links to other cigar/pipe forums in other threads before, and never had those links edited out by a mod, nor have I ever been told before that it wasn't allowed.


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## Scott W. (Jul 10, 2008)

From what I understand, you can link to retailers, etc but if you link to another cigar board, it is not permitted


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## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

Is that rule written anywhere, Scott? I just skimmed through several rule and code of conduct posts, and I didn't see it anywhere.

For the record, again, I don't necessarily disagree with the mods/admins on this particular issue. But "hey, I'm not here anymore, go to this other website to continue reading my content" is *not* the same thing as "check out this interesting post I saw on another message board." I've done the latter numerous times here, and seen it done by others even _more_ times, and never seen or heard of this rule before. Nor do I recall seeing anyone reprimanded for this before.

Sorry to continue taking this thread OT, I just wanted to be clear what the rules actually are for my own information, and possibly correct any misinformation for someone who may be reading this conversation in the future.


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## Blaylock-cl (Apr 28, 2006)

The OP stated that he 'will not be updating this thread', so I'm closing it up.

If he changes his mind and wants to continue with the original topic, he can let us know.


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